Waiting for DNA tests to thaw a cold case

Published: Sunday, February 24, 2013 at 3:38 p.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, February 24, 2013 at 3:38 p.m.

A high school literature class in Virginia is using it to explore Truman Capote's non-fiction novel "In Cold Blood." Two professors at a Pennsylvania university are dissecting it to teach their students about forensic psychology.

Facts

View a map showing sightings of Smith and Hickock in the Sarasota area around the time of the Walker murders.

And here in Southwest Florida the unsolved case of Cliff and Christine Walker, who along with their two small children were murdered in Osprey more than 50 years ago, continues to vex local law enforcement officials.

Interest in the case heightened in December when Sarasota County investigators traveled to Kansas and exhumed the bodies of Perry Smith and Richard Hickock — the killers made famous by Capote's book — based on suspicions that they may have also killed the Walkers.

But it will be at least another month before DNA tests of the remains of Smith and Hickock are concluded, and even then the mystery of who killed the Walkers may remain unresolved.

"The challenge in this particular case is the age of the material," said Kyle Smith, the deputy director of the Kansan Bureau of Investigation, which is handling the DNA testing. "Running the DNA can be done quickly, but you have to have enough DNA to do that. There are some practical difficulties, that's what we're running into."

Smith declined to talk in detail about the specific "issues" the lab is facing in the case. Kansas forensic experts collected DNA, initially anticipating that by paying overtime to one of the lab's scientists the tests could be completed within three to four weeks.

While tests for many cases can be quickly run using samples on hand in criminal databases, extracting enough DNA from degraded samples to compare with the Walker case is more difficult.

Dissecting the facts

Classrooms across the country have read Capote's 1966 classic "In Cold Blood," but now they are also reading about the Sarasota case. In Pennsylvania, two DeSales University professors are using the Kansas and Florida murders as case studies for criminal psychological analysis. The professors and their students are not as convinced by Sarasota County Sheriff's Office detective Kimberly McGath's theory that Smith and Hickock could be responsible for the Walkers' deaths.

After Smith and Hickock killed the Clutter family in Kansas, the duo fled through Florida. That put them in the Sunshine State — and according to some witnesses, Southwest Florida — at the same time the Walker family was murdered in Osprey.

Katherine Ramsland, who teaches forensic psychology at DeSales, said based on what she has read about the case she thinks there is a stronger chance that the killer knew the Walker family.

"It looks more to me as someone more familiar with the family," Ramsland said. "Nothing was taken of value? What would be the motivation for a stranger to find their house and kill them?"

Smith and Hickock, unfamiliar with the Sarasota area, would be unlikely to find and target the Walkers, Ramsland reasons. The family lived in an isolated spot on the Palmer Ranch, where Cliff Walker earned a modest income as a ranch hand.

Like the early Walker investigators, Ramsland believes Christine Walker must have known her killer, because she had time to hang up her purse and put away a few groceries before she was attacked and raped. The crime scene indicated Cliff and their two children were killed shortly after, as they walked in the door.

Christine's high school majorette uniform and the couple's marriage certificate, which were later found to be missing, point toward a killer with personal motives, Ramsland said.

Few clues are conclusive evidence, like the pocketknife found on one of the Kansas killers that appears to match the description of one taken from Cliff Walker.

"We don't know that it is the very knife taken from the Walker home," Ramsland said. "Unless there is some individualized mark that someone could say, that is Cliff Walker's knife, that's not evidence."

Sally Keglovits, another DeSales criminal justice instructor, also is skeptical about the chances of a DNA match. Keglovits became interested in the Kansas case years ago, writing a journal article on the topic and traveling to the Sunflower State looking for new information.

With a Harvard education and a background as a federal probation officer, Keglovits focuses classroom discussions about "In Cold Blood" on the impact of prison on a person, the relationships that Hickock and Smith formed, the time inmates spend together and tendency to one-up their friend's stories.

Keglovits said it is unlikely the men killed a second family.

"In the world of crime, you can't get locked into any one theory, because there are always surprises," she said. "It could happen, I just don't think it is going to happen. We know they were in Florida — after that, it's speculation."

Waiting for answers

Their curiosity stoked, the wait for answers is tough for teacher Michael Goodrich-Stuart and his students at Hanover High School in Virginia.

Like thousands of others who have read Capote's book, Goodrich-Stuart's students want to know what really happened when Smith and Hickock took off on a cross-county road trip after killing the Clutters.

In the decades since Capote published his work — considered by many to be the original non-fiction novel — "In Cold Blood" has been lauded, criticized and analyzed in numerous classrooms and publications.

Goodrich-Stuart has taught the book to several of his previous classes, but this time his students are also watching a new chapter of the true crime story play out in the headlines, exciting and engaging students on a new level by bringing the story to life.

When they learned the killers' bodies could be exhumed, Goodrich-Stuart's two classes had just finished discussing the short section of "In Cold Blood" where Capote details the killers' alibi in the Walker murders.

While these 100 or so students are focused on the literary choices in the writing, they have also scoured the news for developments in the Walker case and pondered the similarities with the Clutter case.

"If I was betting money, I'd bet the DNA would come out positive," Goodrich-Stuart said. "I won't be disappointed if they are negative, but I'll be surprised."

One of his 11th-grade students, Chauncey Lee, said the new revelations made him want to read the book again.

"It made me question the books' integrity," Lee said.

Danny Polk, another student, noted that Capote breezed over the Walker case, apparently accepting the killers' claims about their travels without probing too deeply.

A renewed interest

Back in Sarasota, investigators remain mum about the Walker case.

"We have no statement as to the time frame of the DNA results," the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said. "We will await the results and comment at that time."

Florida detectives had checked out the vague details that Smith and Hickock gave KBI agents and later found witnesses and evidence on their trail from Tallahassee to Miami that contradicted their account of events. Decades after the murders, detective McGath reviewed the Walker case, returning her attention to the long-dismissed suspects.

The recent connection between the killers in Capote's book and the Walker case sparked a renewed interest in both across the country.

The Wall Street Journal, for example, reported that documents held by a KBI agent showed new discrepancies in Capote's masterpiece, including the timing of when KBI agents became involved with the Kansas murders.

The exhumed samples from Smith and Hickock will be compared with the only viable DNA evidence extracted from the Walkers' 1959 crime scene — semen left by Christine Walker's rapist.

Until those tests are completed, people across the country who are following the case must continue to wait to see if this could be the evidence to finally solve the case.

<p>A high school literature class in Virginia is using it to explore Truman Capote's non-fiction novel "In Cold Blood." Two professors at a Pennsylvania university are dissecting it to teach their students about forensic psychology.</p><p>And here in Southwest Florida the unsolved case of Cliff and Christine Walker, who along with their two small children were murdered in Osprey more than 50 years ago, continues to vex local law enforcement officials.</p><p>Interest in the case heightened in December when Sarasota County investigators traveled to Kansas and exhumed the bodies of Perry Smith and Richard Hickock — the killers made famous by Capote's book — based on suspicions that they may have also killed the Walkers.</p><p>But it will be at least another month before DNA tests of the remains of Smith and Hickock are concluded, and even then the mystery of who killed the Walkers may remain unresolved.</p><p>"The challenge in this particular case is the age of the material," said Kyle Smith, the deputy director of the Kansan Bureau of Investigation, which is handling the DNA testing. "Running the DNA can be done quickly, but you have to have enough DNA to do that. There are some practical difficulties, that's what we're running into."</p><p>Smith declined to talk in detail about the specific "issues" the lab is facing in the case. Kansas forensic experts collected DNA, initially anticipating that by paying overtime to one of the lab's scientists the tests could be completed within three to four weeks.</p><p>While tests for many cases can be quickly run using samples on hand in criminal databases, extracting enough DNA from degraded samples to compare with the Walker case is more difficult.</p><p><b>Dissecting the facts</b></p><p>Classrooms across the country have read Capote's 1966 classic "In Cold Blood," but now they are also reading about the Sarasota case. In Pennsylvania, two DeSales University professors are using the Kansas and Florida murders as case studies for criminal psychological analysis. The professors and their students are not as convinced by Sarasota County Sheriff's Office detective Kimberly McGath's theory that Smith and Hickock could be responsible for the Walkers' deaths.</p><p>After Smith and Hickock killed the Clutter family in Kansas, the duo fled through Florida. That put them in the Sunshine State — and according to some witnesses, Southwest Florida — at the same time the Walker family was murdered in Osprey.</p><p>Katherine Ramsland, who teaches forensic psychology at DeSales, said based on what she has read about the case she thinks there is a stronger chance that the killer knew the Walker family.</p><p>"It looks more to me as someone more familiar with the family," Ramsland said. "Nothing was taken of value? What would be the motivation for a stranger to find their house and kill them?"</p><p>Smith and Hickock, unfamiliar with the Sarasota area, would be unlikely to find and target the Walkers, Ramsland reasons. The family lived in an isolated spot on the Palmer Ranch, where Cliff Walker earned a modest income as a ranch hand.</p><p>Like the early Walker investigators, Ramsland believes Christine Walker must have known her killer, because she had time to hang up her purse and put away a few groceries before she was attacked and raped. The crime scene indicated Cliff and their two children were killed shortly after, as they walked in the door.</p><p>Christine's high school majorette uniform and the couple's marriage certificate, which were later found to be missing, point toward a killer with personal motives, Ramsland said.</p><p>Few clues are conclusive evidence, like the pocketknife found on one of the Kansas killers that appears to match the description of one taken from Cliff Walker.</p><p>"We don't know that it is the very knife taken from the Walker home," Ramsland said. "Unless there is some individualized mark that someone could say, that is Cliff Walker's knife, that's not evidence."</p><p>Sally Keglovits, another DeSales criminal justice instructor, also is skeptical about the chances of a DNA match. Keglovits became interested in the Kansas case years ago, writing a journal article on the topic and traveling to the Sunflower State looking for new information.</p><p>With a Harvard education and a background as a federal probation officer, Keglovits focuses classroom discussions about "In Cold Blood" on the impact of prison on a person, the relationships that Hickock and Smith formed, the time inmates spend together and tendency to one-up their friend's stories.</p><p>Keglovits said it is unlikely the men killed a second family.</p><p>"In the world of crime, you can't get locked into any one theory, because there are always surprises," she said. "It could happen, I just don't think it is going to happen. We know they were in Florida — after that, it's speculation."</p><p><b>Waiting for answers</b></p><p>Their curiosity stoked, the wait for answers is tough for teacher Michael Goodrich-Stuart and his students at Hanover High School in Virginia.</p><p>Like thousands of others who have read Capote's book, Goodrich-Stuart's students want to know what really happened when Smith and Hickock took off on a cross-county road trip after killing the Clutters.</p><p>In the decades since Capote published his work — considered by many to be the original non-fiction novel — "In Cold Blood" has been lauded, criticized and analyzed in numerous classrooms and publications.</p><p>Goodrich-Stuart has taught the book to several of his previous classes, but this time his students are also watching a new chapter of the true crime story play out in the headlines, exciting and engaging students on a new level by bringing the story to life.</p><p>When they learned the killers' bodies could be exhumed, Goodrich-Stuart's two classes had just finished discussing the short section of "In Cold Blood" where Capote details the killers' alibi in the Walker murders.</p><p>While these 100 or so students are focused on the literary choices in the writing, they have also scoured the news for developments in the Walker case and pondered the similarities with the Clutter case.</p><p>"If I was betting money, I'd bet the DNA would come out positive," Goodrich-Stuart said. "I won't be disappointed if they are negative, but I'll be surprised."</p><p>One of his 11th-grade students, Chauncey Lee, said the new revelations made him want to read the book again.</p><p>"It made me question the books' integrity," Lee said.</p><p>Danny Polk, another student, noted that Capote breezed over the Walker case, apparently accepting the killers' claims about their travels without probing too deeply.</p><p><b>A renewed interest</b></p><p>Back in Sarasota, investigators remain mum about the Walker case.</p><p>"We have no statement as to the time frame of the DNA results," the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said. "We will await the results and comment at that time."</p><p>Florida detectives had checked out the vague details that Smith and Hickock gave KBI agents and later found witnesses and evidence on their trail from Tallahassee to Miami that contradicted their account of events. Decades after the murders, detective McGath reviewed the Walker case, returning her attention to the long-dismissed suspects. </p><p>The recent connection between the killers in Capote's book and the Walker case sparked a renewed interest in both across the country.</p><p>The Wall Street Journal, for example, reported that documents held by a KBI agent showed new discrepancies in Capote's masterpiece, including the timing of when KBI agents became involved with the Kansas murders.</p><p>The exhumed samples from Smith and Hickock will be compared with the only viable DNA evidence extracted from the Walkers' 1959 crime scene — semen left by Christine Walker's rapist. </p><p>Until those tests are completed, people across the country who are following the case must continue to wait to see if this could be the evidence to finally solve the case.</p><p><empty></p><p><empty></p>